The Essence is a new wave/gothic rock band from Rotterdam, The Netherlands, formed in 1984 and fronted by singer, songwriter and guitarist, Hans Diener.

Signed to Midnight Music in 1985 after a year of gigging, their début album Purity (1986) was released to great acclaim, preceded by the 12-inch single, 'Endless Lakes', which was especially succesful in Holland and Germany.

1987 saw the release of the follow-up album, A Monument of Trust, plus the single 'A Mirage', a catchy tune that cracked the Top 10 in Spain. It was then that The Essence started to tour Europe extensively, building up a strong and faithful following in amongst others, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The popularity of the band continued to grow with the release of the third album. Ecstasy (1988). The videos of the singles 'Only For You' (1989) and 'Like Christ' (1990) got regular airplay on MTV. The group recorded their fourth album, Nothing Lasts Forever (1991), a powerful and dark concept album that made its way to an ever growing following around the world, including Japan and the United States.

A 'best of' CD entitled Dancing In The Rain, was released by Cherry Red Records in 1994 and 1995 saw the release of the fifth studio-album, Glow, on CNR. It was originally intended to be called Afterglow, but the band re-recorded the material especially for CNR. 'Glow' became a hard-to-find collector's item when the label offloaded its catalogue and stopped promoting the record altogether, after which The Essence returned to the original recordings, re-recorded most of the album and self-released Afterglow after all.

The Essence never split up. They continued to tour internationally as a three-piece, but they never recorded an album again, in spite of their announcement that a new album was set for release in 2007. The band's complete studio recordings were released in a box-set by Cherry Red Records in 2018, entitled 'The Essence 35: The Collection 1985-2015'.

1985 line-up:

Hans Diener: vocals, guitar
Jeroen 'Jerry' Geertsma: bass
Olaf 'Ol' Willemsen: drums

Most recent line-up:

Hans Diener: vocals, guitar
George Tan: drums
Mark Tan: keyboards, bass Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.